Veronica Volk

Great Lakes Today Reporter/Producer

Veronica was born and raised on the New Jersey shore, where she was exposed to issues affecting coastal communities. In 2014, she traded the salt water for fresh water when she moved within 10 miles of the shores of Lake Ontario. Now based at WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., she previously worked as senior producer of the weekly public affairs show Cityscape at WFUV Public Radio, the station of alma mater Fordham University.

Whether you call it a lightning bug or a firefly or perhaps by its scientific name, Lampyridae, chances are you’ve had some experience with the tiny flying insect that flashes and blinks its way through summer evenings.

And if you've been noticing more fireflies in your backyard this summer, you're not alone.

“A lot of people are enjoying it and I’m thrilled that people are enjoying it," says Sara Lewis, an evolutionary biologist at Tufts University in Boston, and writer of the book Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies.

In his lab at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, Greg Boyer stands beside his mass spectrometer. This machine is analyzing the chemical makeup of algae samples, specifically, those that produce deadly toxins.